To be Bob

Surely everyone has had the thought of wanting to be someone else at one time or another. But how can we be like someone else when we are built for our own joys and challenges—we have been evolving to the uniqueness that we are. I admire Bob Dylan immensely, but I wouldn't want to be him... he may be the coolest guy on the planet, but like everyone else, he has to carry his own burdens and be rewarded by his own joys. All the same, it could be that we highly admire a friend, an actor, a musician, a writer, a philosopher, etc., but the best thing that we can do regarding the people we look up to, is sometimes exasperatingly, just to admire them.

So that brings me to a question: how do we relate to one another? Every faith, religion, or philosophy advocates some form of introspection, meditation, or reflection. But most of us are too busy to engage regularly in any of those practices. If we did, or perhaps even by pure intention, we'd know, and I mean, we would KNOW that we are much more related to each other than we might think otherwise—this much I have come to realize at some point in my life. Although it's been a while since I've experienced it, and it may sound cliché, but I have experienced that ONENESS... it's kind of like the gentle and timeless fleeing evanescence of the quotidian—just pure sensation beyond reasoning or intellect. I have come to realize that, for the most part, we are far removed from each other by our own egocentricity, and only we can reconcile that separateness. Perhaps with some degree of silence and pure intention, we might get a glimpse of who we really are, and how closely related we are. So I get to be some part of who Bob Dylan is, and he gets to be some part of me.